Cold Reads: The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe

Cold Reads celebrates Writer of the Month! Throughout August, we will be studying the works of Edgar Allan Poe and
celebrating his massive contributions to the horror genre.

Well,
I didn't expect a kind of Spanish
Inquisition!
*Diabolical music* No
one expects
the Spanish Inquisition! This week's creepy classic is Poe's
immortal "The
Pit and the Pendulum,"
a devilish descent into the tortures of the Inquisition minus the
soft pillows and comfy chair of Monty Python's hilarious skit. Poe
drenches his short tale in a palpable sordidness that will instill a
bad
taste in
the reader's mouth and a tangible shiver in the skin.

Our
narrator is on the brink of unconsciousness, given to swooning at
random intervals at the thought of his horrid fate. Brought before
the shadowy judges of the Inquisition, the man's sentence is
determined and he is dragged into an ethereal darkness. Upon
awakening, the prisoner discovers he has been locked away in a
squalid dungeon and nearly plummets to his death in a yawning pit.
The narrator's troubles only heighten when he is next tied to a
rack and forced to watch the hair-raising descent of a wicked blade
from the ceiling. With the ravenous rats crawling at his feet and the
instrument of torture coming ever so close, the prisoner must find a
way to escape the grinning face of Death that moves in on him from
every corner...

"The
Pit and the Pendulum" is one of Poe's most atmospheric tales. He
uses the senses of the narrator (and we the readers) to increase the
terror of the man's ghastly predicament. When the
prisoner first awakens to find himself in utter darkness, his
fear reaches incredible heights. He says it is worst to be lost in
the blackness than to see the full luridness of his tortures. The
lack of sight and direction is unsettling. Without it the prisoner is
a man at the mercy of a greater power whom he cannot give a face to
and whose will he must obey like the most obedient, blind servant.

Not
to say that things get better when the narrator finally does see
where he is exactly. Whereas before Poe emphasized the dark mood of
the tale by having the narrator lost in shadows, he illustrates the
full horridness of the torture chamber in stark clarity. While the
pit remains an abyss of mystery and shadow, the rest of the torture
devices are in full, glaring light. We see how repulsive the filthy
vermin are as they scamper about the dungeon in their search for
meat. The prisoner's hopelessness is only enhanced by the
constriction of the straps that hold him practically immobile on the
rack.

But
worst of all is the swinging pendulum itself. It seems to represent
the full horror of the Inquisition in its power and lethalness. The
torturers allow the prisoner to watch in perfect agony the descent of
his means of demise. The reader may find themselves squirming at each
mighty swing of the blade, dreadfully anticipating the moment when it
is to make its final, deadly slice. Poe milks this moment of every
last terrifying drop. The narrator at first imagines the climax of
his plight when the pendulum will finally cut away his flesh and
slowly make its way to his heart. We are left with this gruesome
picture in our minds during the entire scene, and it only becomes
clearer and more vivid as the end seemingly draws near.

Without
giving too much away, the narrator's escape from the pendulum is
ingenious in its usage of the surroundings to his advantage. This
brief moment of brilliance seems to be snuffed out immediately
afterwards. When their dastardly plans go awry, the torturers resort
to flaying the prisoner alive by using the dungeon's metallic walls
to turn it into a virtual oven. Pushed to the brink of his senses and
resorting to throw himself into the pit, the man is suddenly saved by
General Lassalle of the French army whose forces have just invaded
the land to vanquish the Inquisition. This ending didn't really sit
right with me. I felt it was much too similar to a happy Hollywood
ending with everything tied up in a bright, superficial bow. I would
have much preferred to see the prisoner exercise his cunning to make
another inventive escape. I felt like I was watching a gangster movie
where the hero is suddenly saved by the arrival of the police or a
monster film that has the Army showing up to kill the monster in a
"Hey, aren't you glad we got here?" flourish of trumpets and
missiles.

The
ending kind of sets a match to the dank mood and heart-wrenching
suspense Poe previously built up in the story. But a true fan of the
horror genre or hardcore admirer of Poe will most certainly look past
this minor infraction and simply appreciate the big picture. It is
one of his greatest works and deserves to be in the top five of his
greatest masterpieces. So come along into the dungeon, take a stretch
on the old rack, and let the master of terror grip your heart with an
icy clutch that won't let go.